A rare 18th century VOC notebook with silver fittings possibly by J.G. Holtzhey, VOC chamber Rotterdam

The black leather binding in faux shark skin, with silver fittings, unmarked, front and back centrally with a VOC ship within a symmetrical rococo cartouche, the two clasps with VOC monogram with the letter R for the Chamber of Rotterdam underneath, completely within a curled cartouche, the clasps held together by a silver stylus.
 
The pages are blank, but partly written with contemporary and later notes and (children’s) drawings. A small part of the contemporary notes is legible, for example a money transaction, reading “den 29 Novb. in de goudbeurs 29 Ducaten…”. Further on is the year 1785, so we know for sure that the booklet dates from before 1785.
 
13,5 x 8,0 cm
 
These types of booklets were commissioned for the smaller VOC chambers of Delft and Rotterdam, with the Rotterdam editions being the rarest. They were made for VOC officers, who often gave them as a business or New Year’s gift. Only 8 to 12 of such booklets were made per year.
 
From a diary of the years 1777-1784 of the well-known medalist and mint master J.G. Holtzhey (1729-1808), who made this type of silver fittings for the VOC chambers of Delft and Rotterdam, we know that fittings were to be delivered to silversmith Dirck van Hengel, who probably attached the fittings to the booklets.
 
See for similar specimens National Museum of Singapore, nr. 2018-00768; Storm van Leeuwen vol. IIB p. 1210; Landwehr, VOC p.XXVII and XXIX; Rijksmuseum, nr. NG-472 en AK-RAK-2017-23
 
Literature: Jan Storm van Leeuwen, Dutch Decorated Bookbinding in the Eighteenth Century Volume IIB (The Hague 2006) p.1209-1210, 1221-1223; John Landwehr, VOC: A Bibliography of Publications Relating to the Dutch East India Company, 1602-1800 (1991); De VOC in de wereld van het boek: Sponsor en uitgever published in De Boekenwereld: Tijdschrift voor boek en prent 6 (1990), nr. 4, pp. 134-146